The Palouse Review is the biannual arts and academics journal of the Washington State University Honors College. We accept submissions from current and former honors students from Washington State University and from throughout the Western Regional Honors Council. Our editors are looking for carefully crafted, evocative work that demonstrates the literary, artistic, and academic excellence of our broader honors community.

The next edition of the Palouse Review will be published December 1, 2018. The deadline for submissions is November 1, 2018. Please use the submission link on the menu to the left. We look forward to your submissions of creative and scholarly work.

We include a new feature: “The Freshness of Decay: An Interview with Nnenna Okore” by an Honors 280 Arts-Humanities course at Washington State University. We welcome such submissions for future editions: explorations of art, interviews with artists! (See below as well for a particular theme we invite for the December 1st 2018 edition: photographs of nature – intimate or grandiose – from every corner of the western region!)

A few highlights from this edition:

In The Mysterious Lights of Syria Victor Barraza puts the fairy tale to good, contemporary use. Victoria Karalun explores counter-cultural approaches, nicely illustrated, in Can the Red Tent Ritual be Relevant to Society Today? Sarah Quan’s How China’s Socialist Core Value Propaganda Portrays China as a Serious Society offers a timely examination of macro-political maneuverings in the crosshairs of tradition and global politics. Likewise, Clara Ure asks particularly painful questions to our age in Mass Shootings: The Result of Toxic Masculinity.

You wouldn’t think that such a pedestrian title as I’m Sorry could offer any poetry. But following it Ari Wyatt manages to make the unpoetic poetic, in some sort of a situation at some level most of us recognize. Zachary Zivalich is indeed a poet-in-making with his three selections. Human Gifts explores the complexities of manhood.

The wire sculpture, Revival by Nia Morales, breathes life into decay, not to overlook the technical skills required for the sculpture. Connor Lee Wen captures taut no-nonsense in his City Heat.

We encourage Honors students throughout the western region to contribute submissions for our December 1st, 2018 Edition – submission deadline: November 1st, 2018. Feel free to submit before then!

And we welcome comments! – please use the link on this page!

Kim Andersen | Managing Editor of The Palouse Review

May 1st, 2018

SPECIAL THEMATIC INVITATION for the December 1st 2018 Edition: we encourage submissions of photographs of nature from every corner of the western region – any aspect of western nature captured by any technical configuration: intimate, up-close to the grandiose, breathtaking compositions! Submission deadline: November 1st 2018. The Editors of the Palouse Review

The Freshness of Decay:
An Interview with Nnenna Okore

Nnenna Okore, a renowned Nigerian artist, uses eco-friendly materials in her installations. The motivation behind her work, as she explains in the following interview, breaks away from cultural norms for women, further expanding that African spaces aren’t enabling for women to thrive in art practices, as they are supposed to raise children, put food on table, and pursue domestic labor. Continue reading >>

Fiction

Victor Barraza is an accounting major at Utah Valley University hoping to get into law school to possibly become an estate lawyer. He drew inspiration for his story from his interest in the paranormal, Middle Eastern Studies, and from watching old episodes of The Twilight Zone. He hopes to become an author in his free time writing stories that will utilize the supernatural, faith, history, and science fiction.

Zachary currently serves as one of the Presidential Leadership Fellows at Weber State University. Starting as a youth, he had always had a passion for writing, which has led him to edit for his mother, a now published author, and to write novels.

Nonfiction

Erin Feeley is a third year honors student, studying human development, family studies, and early childhood education. Born in Moscow, Idaho, Erin graduated from a Boise high school before receiving a full-ride scholarship to study at the University of Utah.

Victoria is a 36-year old explorer of life. She is a photographer and aspiring writer studying for a degree in psychology. She spends her time reading, writing fiction and non-fiction, traveling, people-watching, taking pictures, watching movies, and with her husband and eight-year old son. She believes that anything can be analyzed and beauty can be found anywhere.

Michael Nixon is a studying Strategic Management at Brigham Young University in Provo Utah. When he is not studying or working, you will most likely find Michael in one of Utah’s five National Parks hiking, canyoneering, and exploring. Michael is fascinated by leadership and the outdoors and the unique relationship between the two.

Scholarship

Brooke Mickelson is a sophomore in Viola Performance and member of the honors college at Boise State. She performs regularly with the Boise State Symphony Orchestra, the undergraduate quartet “Impresario,” and the Serenata community orchestra. She often collaborates with musicians in the area, recently performing the premiere of Allen Skirvin’s viola duet in a Composition Studio Recital, playing assistant principal viola for the Hymns of Thanksgiving orchestra, and performing the national anthem for retiring Boise State President Bob Kustra with the Viola Ensemble.

Anastasia Nesbit is a second-year History and International Studies double major with concentrations in the U.S. and Latin America. Anastasia is interested in the meetings of gender, racial, and class identities and how they evolve in public discourse.

Clara Ure is currently focussed on furthering her education in Psychology with an intended minor focus in social justice. She is a high school dropout turned straight-A college student, the daughter of immigrant parents, and will soon be the first female in her lineage to graduate from college.

Lourdes was born, raised, and currently lives in Tucson, Arizona. She spends most of her free time walking in the desert with her dogs, playing the ukulele, and writing poems, essays, and short stories that she hope will one day inspire at least one other person.

Ari Wyatt is a Washington State University Honors College student pursuing a major in broadcast production through The Edward R. Murrow College of Communication with a minor in creative writing. She serves as the vice president of television for Cable 8 Productions, a student-run television station at WSU.

Zachary Zivalich is University of California San Diego, and College of the Canyons honors alumni who likes to write down his thoughts in the form of poetry. He first conceptualized the process of how he writes by trying to have a dialectic conversation with himself as a form of self-reflection. He hopes to one day attain a PhD in neuroscience and publish a manuscript of his poetry.

Stone and Smoke

Bleak

Infrared on Campus

City Heat

by Connor Lee WenBrigham Young University

Nuggetsaur and His Mighty Stead

by Sarah YanPortland State University

Lucifluffy’s Room

by Sarah YanPortland State University

Katherine Hughes (Weber State University)
Katherine loves exploring and discovering new (and old) parts of Utah to find different, unique perspectives. She strives to capture the environment of adventure around her so those that can’t adventure themselves can get a taste of the magic!

Madison Lescohier (Portland State University)
Madison Lescohier currently attends Portland State University and is majoring in art practices. An early interest and devotion to the visual arts has encouraged her to pursue a career in the respective field. She hopes to continue to hone her skills by experimenting with new media and considering the interdisciplinary nature of her practice.

Sarah Manriquez (University of Alaska Fairbanks)
Sarah is an art major with a concentration in photography and is pursuing a bachelor of fine arts at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Born in Carson City, NV and raised in Honduras on the island of Roatán- traveling, culture and language have been a large part of her life.

Lara Lee Meintjes (Long Beach City College)
Lara is a returning student majoring in anthropology and communication at Long Beach City College. She immigrated to the US from South Africa in 2010, arriving with a single suitcase. She has inky fingers and peculiar hair. She hopes to eventually work as a legal or environmental anthropologist. Lara works on campus in student equity and parenting student advocacy, is employed as a supplemental instructor in religious anthropology and is engaged in researching the connection between legislation and folklore in various cultural settings.

Nia Morales (Western State Colorado University)
Nia Morales is a non-traditional student from Delran, New Jersey attending Western State Colorado University. Nia ispursuing a BFA in Art with an emphasis in Graphic Design, along with a Minor in Business. She has a tenacious passion for the arts and is elated to be a part of Western State’s Honors, Art and Business programs!

Emily Schuster (Washington State University)
Emily Shuster is a freshman at WSU, and is studying civil engineering with a minor in French. Most of her free time consists of exploring the outdoors in any way, shape or form. When Emily is not doing this, she is working with all mediums of art to capture inspiration from experiences in nature.

Makenna Todd (Washington State University)
Makenna Todd is a senior at Washington State University majoring in zoology. After she graduates, she hopes to enter vet school. In her free time, she enjoys hiking around the Pacific Northwest.

Connor Lee Wen (Brigham Young University)
Connor started in photography in early 2017 when he was inspired by Eric Kim’s “100 Lessons From Street Photography'”. Starting as a street photographer, Connor pursued opportunities to capture decisive moments around him. As he dove more into the art, Connor branched out into travel, portraiture, event and engagement photography, applying the same principles from his street background.

Sarah Yan (Portland State University)
Sarah Yan is a freshman attending Portland State University as a student studying under the honors program. She loves all visual and auditory forms of art, and studies with Dr. Sydney Carlson as a flute performance minor. As of the spring term, she has declared a major in graphic design and will soon be taking her first formal studio classes. However, while still double majoring in architecture and music performance, Sarah also continued to pursue graphic design interests and produced flyers and zines for school events, such as a public conversation with renowned cartoonist Joe Sacco.

Music

Days Before Massby Samuel Rothacker (Portland State University)
Samuel Rothacker is a twenty-year-old physics student at Portland State University. The moniker under which he releases music is Mahogany Temper.

Aloneby Alexis Johnson (Weber State University)Score for Alone
Alexis will graduate this spring from Weber State University’s Bachelor of Integrated Studies with emphases in English, Music, and American Sign Language Interpreting. She also graduated from an interpreting training program and currently work as a state-certified ASL interpreter in Utah.

Digital Multimedia

We decided not to publish any of the submissions for the Digital Multimedia category in this edition of The Palouse Review. We certainly hope to do so in the December 1, 2018 edition of The Palouse Review. Please, consider submitting your digital multimedia for the next edition. If you have any questions in that regard, do not hesitate to contact us.